Opry Night with Sugar Run & Hot Mater Gravy

Sugar Run began as the husband and wife team of Mike (banjo, guitar and vocals) and Bonnie Johnson (bass fiddle and vocals), and has grown to include Geoff White on fiddle and vocals, Rachel Johnson on Fiddle, and Stanley Asbury on the rhythm and flat-pickin’ style guitar and vocals. All of us play in or with other groups in the region, as well. We are located in the Allegheny Mountain regions of Virginia and West Virginia, and our regular performance venues include the New River Valley of Virginia and West Virginia, and the Greenbrier Valley of West Virginia. We do, of course, play in other areas as the opportunities arise. Our musical repertoire consists primarily of traditional music of the Southern Appalachian and Piedmont regions in the style of older (and some contemporary) Bluegrass, Old-Time, old “Country” music, a few Cajun tunes (in French, by Geoff) and some ancient ballads and tunes with roots back to the Scottish, Irish, and English lands. Our music includes songs of: love-gone-bad; train wrecks; bad-men and hangings; murders; ghosts and hauntings; moonshine whiskey; and death and Redemption. (Many, if not all those themes may occur in the same song!). We also include songs of humor as well as peppy fiddle tunes suitable for flat-footin’, square dancing, or just standing around and tapping your feet. Hot Mater Gravy Hot Mater Gravy features Homer Hunter, who is a one-of-a-kind story teller and a local radio personality. “Hot Mater Gravy,” is a band that plays traditional bluegrass. The band’s influences include Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin, Ricky Scaggs, Flatt and Scruggs, and Larry Sparks. Members of Hot Mater Gravy include Homer Hunter, Dana Moyers from Lewisburg W.Va. on the mandolin; Dewitt Daniell also from Lewisburg, plays a straight ahead Scruggs-style banjo; Bob Riggleman from Lewisburg is on bass; Bob’s wife, Julie Riggleman is on vocals and a second rhythm guitar; and Dave Buck, from Pocahontas County, is on lead guitar.